The last month has been pretty good all around. The trip was excellent, had a great time. It really makes me sad that it will probably be awhile before I get the chance to go away again. I have also started my summer co-op with the government which I am enjoying, the people are great.

As for the site change I discussed last post, I have actually made progress. I came up with a design that is a mix of this design and my portfolio design, I’m happy with it. I still have some tweaking to do before I’m ready to put it up though. So, my current goal is to finish that off and get it up then go back to an old project. I had previously created a Facebook app called PhotoGrab to make downloading of pictures from albums very simple. I ended up neglected it so it isn’t online anymore but I want to get it back online and improve it.

I’m really enjoying the lack of homework and having a set work schedule Monday to Friday. It should make for a great summer.

Seems like every time I get around to making a post on here I end up changing something. Well, this time there are two notable changes so far. The first being that I upgraded to WordPress 2.5. I’ve been using WordPress for awhile now and have seen it evolved, and I must say it keeps on getting better. Unfortunately I end up neglecting it by not posting, then always have to update it when I do post.

The second change is that I have moved the blog to its own directory. For now I don’t have anything in the root directory of the site but that will change. During my first term at school we created an online portfolio, something that I think is incredibly important to have, especially as I try to market myself and get that dream job. For the portfolio I created the design myself and I’m not totally pleased with it, mainly because I am in no way creative. I don’t do design. My current plan is to incorporate the portfolio into the design of this blog or to play around and come up with something on my own that I do like. Ideally I want the whole site to have the same look though.

When will this all be done? That’s a great question I say. With school done until September now I have one less excuse, however I will have a full time job (co-op) this summer – starting around the first of May. Oh, and then next week I am gone to the Dominican for a week so it won’t be happening then. I have some free time in between packing and going to a birthday celebration this weekend so I think the plan is to start on it now. Until then though the site root will redirect to /blog.

I feel like I am just talking to myself right now, I don’t think anyone really reads this thing. My own fault though for not keeping it active.

Last weekend I finally bit the bullet and decided to install Vista. There were a couple of things that were bugging me about my system so I wanted to either reinstall XP or give Vista a shot. It’s been on my mind for awhile now that since I am in IT now I need to get much more familiar with it than the occasional tinkering.

Out of curiosity I kept a log of the Vista install process which took about 45 minutes from the time I inserted the DVD until I saw the desktop for the first time. There are just a few comments I have about the install process, the first being that when the setup launched for about three minutes all I had was the Vista background with a cursor, nothing else. This was a little confusing because I didn’t know what, if anything, was going on. Needless to say the install was quite different from XP, but I liked it. There seemed to be a few instances where nothing appeared to be going on for a few minutes. One good example is when setup started expanding files. For a good 5-10 minutes it was showing 0% until after 10 minutes it was showing 75%. Another thing that stood out is that I was able to see an option to upgrade from XP to Vista but I was not able to select it, and believe was told it was not available. Mind you, I wasn’t interested in doing an upgrade, but I can pass this off on the version I am using.

After the install completed the only real issue I noticed immediately was lack of sound. I have built-in sound on my motherboard as well as a sound card that I use. There seems to be a number of people that have had issues with Creative sound cards after installing Vista, although it usually just requires installing a new driver. While trying to resolve the issue I encountered my first BSOD in Vista, but I did manage to get it working. I am hoping that will be the only blue screen I have to see. One other issue that appeared and that I am not 100% sure is gone is that after rebooting the boot process would seem to halt and I would be left with a blank screen. Usually after another reboot or two it was fine. My current thoughts on this are it was a result of the driver issue for the sound card, or it is somehow seeing the old XP install (in a Windows.old folder) and getting confused. I tend to keep my computer on so I will have to watch out for this the next time I reboot.

So, my thoughts on Vista. I have been just as guilty as most at making fun of Vista for as long as I can remember now, but I have to say that so far I am happy with it. I have to admit I am a bit of a sucker for the eye candy though. The primary purpose should be functionality but pretty is always nice too. I do have Aero enabled and my system is working just as good, if not better, then before the switch. For those of you familiar with it my computer scored a base score of 2.8 on the Windows Experience Index, obviously room for improvement but I’m not going to rush out and purchase another video card for a higher score. Overall I don’t have any complaints so far but it hasn’t even been a week yet.

(Note: For those curious, I am running Vista Business with SP1)

Over the long weekend that just passed (Canadian Thanksgiving/US Columbus Day) I was invited up to Québec, QC by Michael to visit some of his family and do some sightseeing. We ended up renting a car and driving there, stopping in Montreal along the way. The drive took about 8-9 hours each way, but thankfully didn’t seem all that long. Needless to say I had a great time, and especially enjoyed the time off of work. The first batch of pictures from the trip is up, and there should be more that I will link to later in the week.

I also learned that the French don’t have turkey for Thanksgiving there so I didn’t get to have any, but there is always the American Thanksgiving next month. I was able to bring some real Canadian beer back to the US as well (go Keith’s!) that seems to be almost impossible to find here so that alone was worth it.

Last night I was informed that one of the people I work for at RateMyTeachers, Nancy Davis, passed away in her sleep. For the past few months she had been battling with cancer and those who knew was aware she didn’t have very long. I’m starting to sound like a broken record but I am glad I had the chance to meet Nancy last year when I went on my trip to California. Over the last few years she did a lot for me and I will be forever appreciative of that.

If you are a user of RateMyTeachers I have made a post on the forums. Feel free to post a reply here and/or over there.

Nancy, you will be missed by all of us.